New Normal Guidelines - April 2017 update!

[N]

Okay, so I do actually have new Normal guidelines to announce. The Normal Game wiki page should be updated to show any changes, along with each role. If you have any questions, or I missed something, please contact me.

Firstly, new roles!

• To make it clearer which roles can be used for which alignment/s, the list of explicitly Normal roles has been split into Town/Mafia/Serial Killer
  
• The following roles and modifiers have now been included as explicitly Normal:
  Voyeur, Follower, Motion Detector, Commuter, Vanilla Cop, Rolestopper, Universal Backup, Friendly Neighbor, Ninja, Enabler, Ascetic
  
  
• The following roles and modifiers have been removed from the explicitly Normal list: Hider, Doublevoter, Compulsive (Note this does not mean they are explicitly not-Normal)
  
• The following roles and modifiers have been added to the explicitly non-Normal list: Vanillaizer, Beloved Princess, Arsonist, Governor, Delayed
  
• Many other explicitly Normal roles have been formally standardised, including
  Traitor
  
  
• All Normal roles now have a "Normal Guidelines" subheading on their wiki page

And some other things!

• All kill flavor must be the same, and should avoid giving any extra information. For most Normal games, kill flavor is along the lines of "died during the night", "was found dead this morning", or even simply just "died".
  
• Unless stated otherwise in their rules, games should use Natural Action Resolution.
  
• Previously, mods were allowed to resolve missed night actions randomly if it was publicly stated beforehand; this, along with any other form of randomness in action resolution, is no longer allowed.
  
• Changes to the day/night cycle (eg
  Nightless or
  Night-Start) are allowed, as long as it is announced beforehand.

These changes will only affect new mods signing up from today. It does not affect any current games.

This does not affect games already in review, nor if you can prove you were already designing your setup before this announcement.

Update 5 July 2015

Some more (minor) changes have been made to the guidelines. Again, this only affects any games that have not begun design.

• Any new roles (i.e., not on the wiki) should flip with their full role pm (redactions permitted)
  
• Rolecops investigating a new role (i.e., one not of the wiki) should receive the full role pm (minus alignment, redactions permitted) as their result
  
• Neapolitan is considered a Normal role
  
• Millers can only be Town-aligned

Update 9 November 2015

For any games entering review from this point forward, Vigilantes can only be town-aligned.

Update 5 February 2016

Two changes! These apply to any setup not already passed review.

• All games must have a continous day/night cycle (e.g., no Nightless or Double Day).
  
• Night Specific is a whitelisted modifier.

Update 1 April 2016

Godfather has been moved to the blacklist. This will be effective for any setups which have not yet been sent to me for review. (i.e., this does not affect any moderators or games currently in the queue)

Update 7 May 2016

• Althought it has always been unofficially part of the guidelines, "Mafia must specify which member is performing the factional kill each night. Mods may choose whether or not to allow Mafia power roles to perform their action as well as their factional kill on the same night or not, and should list this choice in their rules" has now been added to the wiki page.
  
• Balance is now explicitly part of being Normal, and so "normalcy-only reviews" will no longer be offered. This does not affect any games which have already passed review.

Update 6 April 2017

• Loyal is now an approved modifier. "Players actions only work on people of same alignment and are considered roleblocked if they target someone of different alignment."

[N]

We felt that Ninja either needed to be whitelisted or blacklisted, and it is used often enough that we felt whitelisting was the way to go.

[N]

Did you update the categories when you changed stuff or do I need to go do that?

I think I did, but it can't hurt for you to doublecheck.

[N]

Why has different kill flavor for different factions been banned? I haven't modded a normal in years, but it's something I like. I'm curious here.

There are various reasons for this. As well as what Reck said, knowing exactly how a player dies really changes the game. For example, it shouldn't be obvious that a Weak role died during the night from targeting an anti-town role. My main reason for this rule is that I don't want a serial killer's kill to be obviously different than other kills - the main reason serial killers are still allowed (a Normal game should be informed minority vs uniformed majority, and where does a Serial Killer fit into this?) is so that a vigilante is not unintentional confirmed town; if a serial killer's victim is flipped as "stabbed", this sort of defeats the purpose. Also, if every night there have been two deaths and then suddenly there is only one, it shouldn't be immediately obvious which killing role didn't successfully kill (or if both killing roles killed the same person) - this may be fine in themes, but I feel it is out of place in Normals.

[N]

That's... not what I said.

[N]

I see no need for standardised results pms, just like I see no need for standardised role pms. I ask new mods to supply them before review, and they need to be agreed to by reviewers before a game can begin signups.

[N]

I changed things again!!

Update 5 July

Some more (minor) changes have been made to the guidelines. Again, this only affects any games that have not begun design.

• Any new roles (i.e., not on the wiki) should flip with their full role pm (redactions permitted)
  
• Rolecops investigating a new role (i.e., one not on the wiki) should receive the full role pm (minus alignment, redactions permitted) as their result
  
• Neapolitan is considered a Normal role
  
• Millers can only be Town-aligned

[N]

Because there's a difference between passive and active? (I'm assuming by "is told how many shots left" you mean "is able to do simple subtraction" for all your other examples.)

[N]

well done reinoe

[N]

new update! just the one thing this time!

Update 9 November

For any games entering review from this point forward, Vigilantes can only be town-aligned.

[N]

got any other loopholes you want us to close?

[N]

It's more that we used molla's setup to test something we were wary of.

[N]

Hello, I bring two new updates!

I actually meant to post these like a month ago.

Update 5 February 2016

Two changes! These apply to any setup not already passed review.

• All games must have a continous day/night cycle (e.g., no Nightless or Double Day).
  
• Night Specific is a whitelisted modifier.

[N]

so Odd-night commuter is banned?

What?

[N]

Update 1 April 2016

Godfather has been moved to the blacklist. This will be effective for any setups which have not yet been sent to me for review. (i.e., this does not affect any moderators or games currently in the queue)

[N]

This has actually been sitting in my to-do list since the middle of last month, but I didn't want to have two updates in the same month because that way madness lies.

Update 7 May 2016

• Althought it has always been unofficially part of the guidelines, "Mafia must specify which member is performing the factional kill each night. Mods may choose whether or not to allow Mafia power roles to perform their action as well as their factional kill on the same night or not, and should list this choice in their rules" has now been added to the wiki page.
  
• Balance is now explicitly part of being Normal, and so "normalcy-only reviews" will no longer be offered. This does not affect any games which have already passed review.

[N]

Universal backups are restricted to power roles of the same faction. Are regular backups as well? It's not mentioned, so I'm wondering if opposing faction backups are actually legal.

The only reason universal backups are required to backup their own faction is to prevent something like a Mafia universal backup becoming an innocent child. This isn't a problem with regular backups.